Flight To Freedom
by BobWhite
Summary: A FED on the run with an escaped Academy student. What happens when they run into the crew of the Serenity? Full summary inside. Pls R&R 2 find out more. Really need reviews, not just favorites and followers, though those are good too, but REVIEWS are needed!
1. A Shadow of The Past

**Full Summary:**

A girl fleeing the FED's lands in the custody of a FED on the run as well. Two people, one map. The girl is the key to finding a better life out among the stars. Born with a map in her head, she is the last of her race, before the people of Earth showed up in her Galaxy. What happens when the FED and the girl come upon Serenity and enlist her crew to get them to their destination? Will a new world, free of all the anguish that the people of Earth have caused be found? Or is it Earth the girl is trying to get to?

**A Shadow of The Past:**

**A Girl Named Shadow:**

Shadow, a girl not unlike River Tam a girl hunted by the FED's. Shadow had escaped from the FED's Academy the same way River had, only she had done it alone. She didn't have a brother or sister that cared enough to get her out. She had no parents that were looking for her. She had no one except that constant nagging in the back of her mind that told her that she needed to get out. She had been on the run since then. She'd been able to steal some clothes and some money from a member of the FED team that she had taken out. When she'd gotten a safe distance away from the Academy, she ditched the clothes but kept the money. She used her mind to produce clothes from her surroundings and had a full outfit by the time five minutes had passed. She even had shoes, constructed of the rocks beneath her feet.

She had been River's roommate at the Academy and they had tried to get out together only once. They had failed and then River had reverted to writing her brother for help. She'd had no one to help her. River had Simon to get her out and once she knew that River was safe, she blocked her from my mind set so that they wouldn't catch her communicating with her. They had pared them together because they could read each other's minds and though we hadn't quite gotten the hang of it, they had also formed a much deeper bond, one that they didn't know of yet.

With the FED's after her, she knew that she needed to blend in as much as she could and though it wasn't easy, she did get the hang of it quite quick. With her ability to morph into her surroundings, a gift she had inherited from my original people, she was able to stay one step ahead of the FED's as well as their hunting parties. She hadn't smelled the way most people had smelled since escaping the Academy. She did hope that sooner or later she would run into River and her brother Simon, but she knew that if that ever happened, they would all be arrested and then they would really be in trouble.

As she made ready to leave the area she was hiding in at the moment, a FED cruiser ship, accustomed to flying in outer space with maybe one or two people on board, landed next to my hiding spot. A female FED got out and walked around, & by her outfit, she could also tell that she was on the run. She came out of hiding and the FED nodded at her before taking her arm and walking her to the back of the cruiser. They both got in and then the FED headed the cruiser into space. She ate the food that had been set out for her and she knew that what the FED had done would get her killed if she was ever found with a fugitive.

**A FED On The Run:**

Aaron Sportling had heard about the two escaped teens from the Academy and though she knew that nobody could track the last escape back to her, she still knew that she had to get out and fast. She bought herself a four person cruiser, something nobody would be looking for and stocked it with enough food and water to last a long time. She made sure that she had enough money to keep anyone with her comfortable for a long time (in fact, she had drained her entire account). When asked by her superiors why she needed all her money, she'd told them that she had finally found the perfect place to put down roots and that she needed it to buy her spread of land. They were never the wiser.

Aaron left that day, with enough clothes, food, water, mechanical parts, money and whatever else one needed to stay sane in long periods of time in space and then departed. She knew exactly where to find Shadow. Aaron had been Shadow's guard while she was at the Academy and she knew that Shadow was the last of her kind, the last of a race first found in the galaxy while the terraforming had been going on. Aaron was to be Shadow's ride to planet she needed to get to in order to procure her people's safety. She was the key that they needed to thrive once again among a race where they weren't wanted.

She kept her mouth shut as she listened to Shadow eating behind her. When the girl had had enough to eat, she turned around and looked at Shadow. Shadow grabbed two cups of water and walked to the front of the cruiser. Shadow handed a cup to Aaron and then sat down in the seat next to her. This was going to be a long trip for the both of them so they might as well get comfortable living together.

**A Map To Another Time:**

Shadow was sleeping when all of a sudden she was awake, or was it a dream. She could no longer tell her dreams from reality. The planet was calling to her, begging her to return. The cruiser was definitely not going to be able to make it to the planet by itself. Shadow's home world was too far out in the verse to be able to get there with a small cruiser that was only meant to fly short trips. By using the map in her head, Shadow knew that once within the planet's sight, all that were with her would understand why she so desperately needed to get to the planet. She wished that it wouldn't just be the two of them going and she knew that if it was, then they were going to need to upgrade to a bigger ship and soon.

Aaron had noticed Shadow sitting up and though she looked awake, knew better than to wake her. Shadow used her sleep to locate their place on the map in her mind. It was a map back to her home world and she knew that if anything was ever to happen to Shadow, an entire race of people would be forgotten about. This is why Aaron had risked her life and career to making sure that Shadow was able to escape. Because like Shadow, Aaron needed to escape as well.

It had been nearly two weeks since they had escaped and now they were definitely well off on their own. No reavers had attacked and Aaron was still trying to figure out why. Aaron figured it had something to do with the fact that Shadow was keeping them away, but couldn't really pinpoint the real reason. She kept the alert system activated just in case something came up while the two of them were asleep. So far, nothing had appeared and they were able to get some sleep before heading off again.

Who will Aaron and Shadow come up upon? Will there be any one that is willing to help them in their quest to find Shadow's people? Are any of Shadow's people still alive?

_**More to come in the next chapter…**_

_**Reviews please…**_


	2. Femme Fatale

**Femme Fatale:**

**A Hidden People:**

Shadow was searching out her people, using her mind to do it, when she encountered a mind she had nearly forgotten about. River and her had always been able to touch each other's minds and now was no different. In the Academy, they had kept each other sane as well as calm. Shadow could feel River in her mind and though she tried to block her out, she knew that her friend had found her and was never letting go again.

Like River, I had been placed in fighting courses, where a trigger phrase could activate us. Unlike River, I didn't need a trigger phrase to activate me. It was a talent and gift I had honed from my birth people, those I had been kidnapped from. Aaron and I were searching, so many times, always searching for someone that could keep us safe and help us make the journey to my home planet. It wasn't that we couldn't get there; it was the fact that if we were caught, they'd kill us on sight and we would have no way of warning people what was coming.

I knew how to reach out to my people, using my mind. I knew how to tell them that I was coming with friends. But I also knew that if I wanted to reach out to my people, that I needed to be a lot closer to home than we were at the moment. Aaron was driving now, moving away from some of the more FED populated planets and heading for the not so FED populated planets. If anything, we could find a ship that would take us as well as our cruiser and head back into deep space. We just hoped that they would take on a FED and a girl who'd escaped from the Academy.

**A Place of Urgency:**

As I slept and Aaron maneuvered the cruiser towards Persephone, I dreampt of my home world, of what my people would be doing right now. I knew that if I wanted to get in contact with them, we needed to be away from a populated planet and though we were headed to one, I got the feeling that nobody would care that we were even there. I knew that as soon as we touched down, I would have to stay in the ship for fear of being caught by any FED on the planet so I made sure I would have enough to do while Aaron was out on the surface, getting permissions from a Captain to board his ship with a cruiser in tow.

With so much at stake, if it came right down to it, Aaron would have to use her authority as a FED to get onto the ship, bringing Shadow and all of their belongings with. If that happened, and the Captain decided to call her commanding officer, then she knew that she would have to explain herself. She'd kept her ID on her just in case she needed to use it but at the moment, there was no need to use it. She kept it hidden on a throng around her neck, so no one would be able to take it off of her. She moved about the ships, barely looking at the highly secured ships. She was looking for a ship that was barely secured so she could force her way on to the ship if necessary. She knew that Shadow was growing weaker everyday. Without a doctor to look at her soon, Shadow would slip into a coma and most likely die. She needed to find someone and quick.

**A Flight Not Seen:**

Back at the Academy, the alert had gone out that the missing girl might have had an accomplice and everyone was being scrutinized. Shadow had done her best to make sure their flight was not seen by the FED's but she knew that sooner or later, they would track the cruiser to Persephone and would find her and Aaron out. So far as Shadow could tell, Aaron was not yet under scrutiny because she was not at the Academy. The Academy had been her last mission before she was to get out. If they missed her, they could always look to the new homestead that Aaron had lied to her commanding officer about. But they were not looking in that direction at the moment.

Shadow got moving about the cruiser, gathering up all of hers and Aaron's belongings, mostly the books (plus electronic dictionary), the music Shadow listened to to calm her mind, the writing materials they used to keep track of the days as well as play games on, their clothes, the food and the water. She even grabbed the rest of the money that Aaron had left in the cruiser just in case Shadow needed to make a quick escape. She packed all of their things into a large suitcase and then the food in a smaller suitcase and put that one on top of the larger one. She kept the money in a pouch hanging from a throng around her neck.

Last but not least, she grabbed the small knife she had managed to find in the cruiser that Aaron had either forgotten about or left it for her to find. If anyone besides Aaron came through the door, she would use it to fight to death if need be. But when it was Aaron who came through the door with a few people behind her, Shadow relaxed, but not by that much. The people behind Aaron grabbed their belongings that Shadow had packed up and Aaron helped Shadow stand then the two walked outside to the waiting quad and Aaron made Shadow sit sideways covered in a blanket being held by a man she did not know.

_**More to come in the next chapter…**_

_**REVIEWS PLS…**_


End file.
